The inspiring D-day veterans parachuting back into Normandy
● Royal Family, May and Trump to attend ceremonies
Thousands of people will mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings at a series of commemoration events in the UK and France this week.
Members of the Royal Family and politicians as well as hundreds of veterans are set to attend ceremonies to remember what is considered one of the most important events of the Second World War and the biggest amphibious invasion in military history.
More than 200 veterans have boarded a cruise ship chartered by the Royal British Legion to attend the events while others are descending en masse on Portsmouth and Normandy.
The ship MV Boudicca was to set sail last night after Sir Rod Stewart performed for the war veterans on the vessel before it left – singing his 1975 hit Sailing.
Key ceremonies acknowl - edging the operation, which saw thousands killed and injured after it launched on 6 June, 1944, include the UK’S national commemoration event on Wednesday which will be attended by the Queen and US president Donald Trump.
Representatives from other allied countries as well as Germany are expected to attend the event at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial involving 4,000 military personnel ,11 Royal Naval vessels and 26 RAF aircraft.
Mr Trump’ s attendance has led to a massive security operation and claims that his presence will take the focus away from veterans.
The Hampshire port will be the focus of other commemorative events throughout the week while international attention shifts to France.
Other events are planned for Poole, in Dorset, and Duxford, in Cambridgeshire, alongside hundreds of smaller gatherings around the UK.
Later in the afternoon, veterans Harry Read, 95, and John Hutton, 94, will parachute into Normandy in honour of comrades they lost when they first made the descent 75 years ago.
Along with about 280 paratroopers they will take part in the descent onto fields at Sanner ville – the drop zone for the 8th Midlands Parachute Battalion during D -Day. Mr Read, then a 20-year-old wireless operator with the Royal Signals, said: “I will enjoy the jump. It might be a little bit tricky but I’m willing to have ago.
“But also in my heart I will be
thinking of my mates. I have lived one of the most fulfilled lives that it’s possible for a person to live and they haven’t.”
Mr Hutton – known as Jock – was 19 when he served in the 13 th Lancashire Parachute Battalion. The experienced parachutist is not fazed by the prospect and said there was “nothing strange” about it.
In the evening a vigil and silent march will take place at Pegasus Bridge, which was the scene of a 15-minute skirmish to take hold of the pathways over the Caen Canal and River Orne. This was the first British objective to be achieved on D-day.
On Thursday a service of remembrance will be held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
Theresa May will make one of her final official appearances as Prime Minister during the D-day commemoration events.
She will begin her tour on Thursday at an inauguration ceremony which will see a sculpture unveiled at the British Normandy Memorial site overlooking Gold beach which is being built to honour those who died during the Battle of Normandy between the D-day landings and 31 August, 1944.
Then she will join the Prince of Wales and Du chess of Cornwall for a service of remembrance at Bayeux Cathedral. This will be followed by a service at the Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission site of the war in France.
Asa weapon of war, the bagpipes earned their stripes on D-day by stunning the enemy and buying a group of Scotsled commandos a vital moment as they advanced up the beach in the face of German gunfire.
With the 75 th anniversary of the D-Day landings to be marked this week (6 June), new information has emerged about the role played by legendary piper Bill Millin in halting enemy attack and allowing the men of 4 Commando to safely take position on French soil.
Ken T out, a former tank comman do who supported the Highland Division during the D-Day campaign, has just published a tribute to the men who took part in the June 1944 landings with the account of a young Tunisian fighter, Renée Rossey, included in his new book, “How Modest are the Bravest!”. Aged just 16, Rossey travelled thousands of miles to Scotland–from Tunisia to Beirut and then to London and the Highlands–to train and serve with 1st Special Service Brigade, 4 Commando, after the allied liberation of his home country.
As D-day approached, Brigadier Lord Lovat, chief of Clan Fraser, made a highly symbolic gesture and allowed the Free French to lead the advance into Normandy and be the first of the unit to step onto French soil.
Around 7:30am on 6 June, 1944 and carrying a .303 machine gun and an 80 pound backpack, Rossey jumped off the brigade’s landing craft and waded through the water to Sword Beach surrounded by floating corpses.
As they advanced, German gunfire rained down with the 16-year-old amongst those halted in their tracks by a raised promenade and a barbed wire fence.
Trapped and under attack, it now appears that it was the sound of Bill Millin – who strode up and down the beach playing Heiland Laddie as 4 Commando made it out of the water – that saved him.
Rossey’s account said: “We were pinned down on the beach, many of our comrades killed or missing.
“But when Lovat’s piper walked up and down the beach, piping his lungs out, the Germans seemed stunned, as if they had seen a ghost.
“They briefly stopped firing, perhaps even to laugh, and in that brief moment we made it through the barbed wire at the top of the beach.”
At the time of the D-day landings, a War Office directive ruled that no musicians should be sent to the front.
“So many were killed by the enemy by being put at risk in 1914. The War Office said no more musicians,” Tout said.
“When Lord Lovat said to Millin ‘have your bagpipes ready’, Millin said it wasn’t legal.
“Lovat said that was a ruling from the British War Office, and that they were Scottish,” he added.
Millin’s role in the D-day landings is well documented, with it said German’s chose not to shoot the piper simply because they thought he had gone mad.
Tout added that the story of the bagpipes being played during the D-day landings had “always been treated as a bit of a joke”.
“But actually there was something much more vital going on,” he added.
“Rossey was utterly stuck but that brief pause in firing once Millin started up his bagpipes allowed the Free French lads to dash across the promenade unscathed,” Tout said.
Rossey, who died in 2016, was one of 25,000 allied Commandos from around the world to be stationed at Achnacarry Castle in Lochaber for training in the unrelenting mountainous terrain. He “answered every call” of the tough training regime and was awarded the coveted green beret and Commando dagger. Still underage at the end of the course, he was known as Benjamin – or youngest brother – to his comrades. Meanwhile, a statue of Bill Millin, who was born in Canada and whose father was from Glasgow, can today be seen on Sword Beach to mark the actions of this remarkable, brave musician. He died in 2010.